Dispatches from the Land of Flowers: A Snakeman, a Sad Poet, a Lightning Stalker, and Other Stories about Real Florida

Down Home Press978-1-878086-52-5$14.95 paperback6 x 9268 pagesPublished in 1996

Nobody knows Florida as does St. Petersburg Times prize-winning columnist Jeff Klinkenberg, who has made a career of searching out the Florida that tourists, and most Florida residents, never see. In this sequel to his popular and critically acclaimed Real Florida, Klinkenberg, who grew up in Miami, again takes his readers deep into Florida's magnificent (and endangered) wildernesses, and to its most enchanting out-of-the-way spots. Along the way, he introduces them to some of the most intriguing and fascinating people who call Florida home.

Praise:

“Here in the many-blossomed state of Florida, Jeff Klinkenberg is our Thoreau, our Audubon, our Russell Baker and our Edward Hoagland, an open-eyed but innocent and gentle chronicler of Florida's amazing pleasures, keeping the culture alive with prose as downhome as good talk and a tomato sandwich. The governor should kiss Klinkenberg's backside for writing this book and give the guy a medal.” —Bob Shacochis, National Book Award winner and author of Swimming in the Volcano and Easy in the Islands

“Visitors to Florida will find some little-known hidey holes to explore in this book. Suburban Floridians can dream of the state's hidden wonders that Klinkenberg writes about—and maybe be inspired to see them. Subtly hidden among the pages of stories, readers will learn the language of authentic Florida—a ‘mess’ of anything is just the right amount. Some of the people and places in the stories are lumpy, bumpy, and flawed. But they're all real.” —Amazon.com reviewer